Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Developer account removed by Apple

seraleev.notion.site

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

141–150 of 457 posts

Re: Developer account removed by Apple

#141

Post by Longhanks »

cptaj wrote: post #112

This keeps happening again and again in all online marketplaces. Be it amazon, ebay, app stores, etc. This NEEDS to be regulated. If thousands of companies make a living in your marketplace, you simply can't be allowed to take destructive unilateral action against their business without due process. One guy reviewing tickets in a random location worldwide, working for minimum wage, takes a 30 second look at your case…

> This is simply an insane way of doing business.

Then don't? Apple clearly lays out the rules beforehand?

I don’t see how "being able to sell software on the platform a company allows you to sell on yet not following the platform creator's rules" should be a human right?

If you don't want to take the risk of Apple disapproving you selling your software on their platform, maybe don't start a business depending on Apple not doing so?

Re: Developer account removed by Apple

#142

Post by moralestapia »

quickthrowman wrote: post #128
moralestapia wrote: post #124

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You answered to the wrong comment maybe? Because that is not money laundering.

It sounds like you have no idea what money laundering actually is, to be honest. Money laundering is concealing the source of illegally obtained money. You use stolen credit cards to buy gift cards (or just defraud people to obtain gift cards). This is dirty money . You pay it to yourself on the App Store by getting an app listed and buying it. Apple then deposits money (minus their 30% cut) in your bank account, whi…

[flagged]

Re: Developer account removed by Apple

#143

Post by [deleted] »

moralestapia wrote: post #117
mortallywounded wrote: post #4

Something feels off... those apps don't seem like 33K/MRR worthy. I suspect some kind of manipulation was being done to... help?

>those apps don't seem like 33K/MRR worthy It's 6 of them, so more like ~5K USD/month revenue. I'm sorry that you've never built something meaningful, but that revenue bracket is actually low for a decent app with some marketing going on.

[deleted]

Re: Developer account removed by Apple

#144

Post by singingboyo »

Dylan16807 wrote: post #91
nullindividual wrote: post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Steam will moderate or at least put a notice when a game is being review bombed for things unrelated to the game itself, such as a controversy with the developer. https://www.pcgamer.com/valve-takes-steps-against-steam-revi...

Though sometimes they do that when the reviews are about the game itself.

Sometimes the reviews are about the game, but they're being left because that's the thing to do according to the internet that day. So a legitimate grievance but blown of proportion due to factors outside the game.

I don't think it's unreasonable to flag that.

Re: Developer account removed by Apple

#145

Post by silenced_trope »

judge2020 wrote: post #40
Manuel_D wrote: post #8

If the fake reviews are indeed the reason why the apps were taken off the store, that does strike me as an inappropriate action. Take down the reviews, yes. But closing the developer account creates a big opportunity to eliminate competition by buying fake reviews for your competitors. There's also nothing developers can do to prevent this since they can't curate or reject reviews from what I know. That said, other c…

This was talked about by Phillip Shoemaker (head of App Store Review 2009-2016) in this talk[0], where some developers figured out that if they hired marketing firms to commit review fraud on a competitor’s app, their competitor would get terminated because there’s no clear way to actually attribute the fraud to the developer. I guess the App Store fraud prevention team hasn’t necessarily found a good solution yet. 0…

pretty clever, it reminds me of the early days of the app store when apps would be taken down for copyright strikes but if you provided proof you'd be given "immunity" from further strikes taking down your app while Apple investigates

it became a strategy to copyright strike your own app, have proof ready so that no downtime was necessary, then you have the temporary immunity so that competitors couldn't submit a copyright strike, which costed them nothing to do and had no consequences if they were wrong about it

Re: Developer account removed by Apple

#146

Post by FinnKuhn »

absqueued wrote: post #104
kalleboo wrote: post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We hired an "app revenue optimization" guy for an hour consultation just to see if we missed something obvious. One thing he suggested was to ask for a review instantly after the paywall. Apparently if you do that, most people will give a 5 star review. We haven't done it since it seems... weird? scammy? but apparently it's a thing that works for maximizing ranking (since reviews are a big influence)

Curious, do you think the mentality of buyers would be "I just paid, so it s 5"? And I am glad you didn't do it. I personally find it so annoying. I am do ask for reviews but lemme use it for a while first?

I would assume that people don't buy an App that they wouldn't give a positive review?

Re: Developer account removed by Apple

#148

Post by JumpCrisscross »

moralestapia wrote: post #124
sp0rk wrote: post #115

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Could you enlighten us? How does one launder money through some iOS apps? You use stolen credit cards to purchase the app. It's a very common method of fraud and does not require a criminal mastermind or a group of people to perform. I have no opinion on what happened in this particular case, but it's crazy to imply that nobody is doing this stuff.

You answered to the wrong comment maybe? Because that is not money laundering.

> that is not money laundering

I’m willingly jumping into a hornet’s nest, but out of genuine curiosity, why?

Re: Developer account removed by Apple

#149

Post by realusername »

judge2020 wrote: post #98
echelon wrote: post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I guess the App Store fraud prevention team hasn’t necessarily found a good solution yet. The most essential device of the century is owned by two companies. The ability for them to completely control software and business activities on top of something that is almost as essential as public transportation is appalling. The DOJ needs to remove the "app store" racket for essential computing devices. Software needs to…

One of the main draws of iOS is its resistance to malware, adware, and outright scam apps. Requiring third party app stores disproportionately harms those that purchased the device specifically for these purposes (such as people at higher risks of being targeted by nation state actors). And this isn’t something that can be addressed with a new uber-secure product just for these people, because the EU will deem it a g…

> One of the main draws of iOS is its resistance to malware, adware, and outright scam apps.

Well no, the appstore is as full of scams, malware and adware as everywhere else.

They managed somehow to convince people it's a safe space though, not sure how but I consider it a bad thing since people are more likely to trust it blindly.

> such as people at higher risks of being targeted by nation state actors

https://apps.apple.com/us/app/absher-%D8%A3%D8%A8%D8%B4%D8%B...

The Saudi Arabian app to track what your wife is doing is still on the appstore, no need for a thirdparty store.

Re: Developer account removed by Apple

#150

Post by graemep »

judge2020 wrote: post #98
echelon wrote: post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I guess the App Store fraud prevention team hasn’t necessarily found a good solution yet. The most essential device of the century is owned by two companies. The ability for them to completely control software and business activities on top of something that is almost as essential as public transportation is appalling. The DOJ needs to remove the "app store" racket for essential computing devices. Software needs to…

One of the main draws of iOS is its resistance to malware, adware, and outright scam apps. Requiring third party app stores disproportionately harms those that purchased the device specifically for these purposes (such as people at higher risks of being targeted by nation state actors). And this isn’t something that can be addressed with a new uber-secure product just for these people, because the EU will deem it a g…

No one has to use third party app stores.

Android allows third party app stores and it is not a significant cause of problems. I am sure there must be some bad app stores out there, but the well known ones like F-Droid are probably better curated than Google's own.

Linux has always allowed third party repositories. Again, rarely a source of problems - again, there must be some bad things out there but the percentage of users affected is tiny.

Post reply on HN